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Lebanon's Cedar Revolution: Be Careful What You Wish For

When, in the summer of 1983, President Reagan appointed me his personal envoy in the Middle East, Lebanon was in turmoil—as it is today. The so-called National Pact—a power sharing arrangement concluded in 1943 designed to enable Druze, Christian, Sunni, and Shia communities to co-exist—had broken down eight years earlier, leading to a civil war and finally to an invitation to Syria to occupy the country to "keep the peace." The year before I arrived, Israel had invaded the country, expelled Yasser Arafat and his PLO fighters, and remained an occupying presence positioned cheek-by-jowl with several divisions of Syrian forces.

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